Hurzeler: We played with courage against Leeds

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Head coach spoke to media after Albion's 3-0 win on Saturday.

Bruce Talbot

2025-11-01T18:00+00:00

Fabian Hurzeler shouts instructions from the touchline. 📷 by Paul Hazlewood.

Fabian Hurzeler was delighted that his team kept their first clean sheet of the Premier League season in their 3-0 win over Leeds United.

The win and a clean sheet must please you?

I'm delighted with the clean sheet. I think it’s the first one this season. It's a very important one because everyone needs to understand what it needs or what we have to invest to keep the clean sheet. And it's not only the goalkeeper; it's not only defenders; it starts with the strikers and continues with the midfielders. We all had to do a job to keep a clean sheet.

You talked in the past about giving Diego Gomez time to adapt. Is he an example of that patience?

Yes for sure, but I think he didn't need that much time to adapt. This speaks of his quality and I said I was very surprised how fast he adapted to the intensity and to the demands from the Premier League.

It’s not a surprise that he can score that many goals. For me, he has to be more present in the opponent’s box. He has a really good finish. He is a good header of the ball and he has a good shot. So he has everything inside of him and therefore I'm not surprised how good he is at the moment.

What do you think was the difference between the two teams?

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Danny Welbeck scores against Leeds United again, and Diego Gomez bags a brace, as Albion win 3-0 at the Amex on Saturday afternoon.

That's a good question. I think I can only focus on my team and regarding my team we started well and we showed a good intensity. We played with a lot of courage. We created chances in possession. We created chances when we were pressing and we were good in transition. So overall, we covered a lot of bases.

And of course we had moments where we suffered, but we stayed together. We had a good compactness. And then I think in the second half we scored those two goals in the right moment. We had to keep pushing because Leeds are a really good team and they will never stop. They have good physicality in their team. They can run a lot, so we have to be ready for that.

How did you rate Georginio Rutter’s performance today?

For me it's important that you can still play very well without scoring goals and of course in the media and everywhere you get the rewards for scoring goals, but he will get the rewards when he works hard for the team, when he has a big impact on creating chances. It's about being impactful in our offensive play.

He had good positioning. He reacted well when we lost the ball. He worked well defensively.

And Yankuba Minteh made another big impact as well didn’t he?

I think we can go through all the individuals now, but the main thing is you will only develop as a player when you are successful as a team, when you work hard as a team. Then then the player will shine.

Now we have to keep pushing and focus on trying to get a very stable performance week after week. And then I'm sure that with the players we have there is the potential to grow.

One of the main messages today was that we had to be alive for 90 minutes, that we couldn’t rest in any phase of the game.

Would you be surprised if Danny Welbeck gets into the England squad next week?

I wouldn't be surprised, but I don't know. I'm impressed by his actions as a leader, by being a role model for the young players. That is what is impressive for me, that he's a great connector. He is an unbelievable role model but as a striker I'm not surprised because he shows it week by week, day by day.

He is not only a great goal scorer, he also works hard for the team. And then you get the rewards.